AJFF2019

Seventy years after WWII, Oskar Gröning, one of the last surviving members of the SS, goes on trial as an accessory to the murder of 300,000 people at the Auschwitz concentration camp.

King Bibi explores Benjamin Netanyahu's rise to power, relying solely on archival footage of his media performances over the years: from his days as a popular guest expert on American TV, through his public confession of adultery, and his mastery of the art of social media. From one studio to another, "Bibi" evolved from Israel's great political hope, to a controversial figure whom some perceive as Israel's savior, and others - as a cynical politician who will stop at nothing to retain his power.

Kaleb, a beloved German Shepherd, is separated from his Jewish family when the Nuremberg Laws are enacted in WWII Berlin. He is adopted by an SS Officer who trains him to attack and round up Jews at a work camp.

'Laces' tells the story of a complicated relationship between an aging father and his special-needs son, whom he abandoned while he was still a young boy. Reuben's (60) kidney's are failing and his son Gadi (35), wants to donate one of his own kidney's to help save his father's life. However, the transplant committee objects to the procedure claiming that Rueben, acting as Gadi's sole legal guardian, does not have the right to authorize such an invasive procedure. Gadi, who recently lost his mother, is afraid of losing his father as well. He feels he finally has the chance to do something meaningful; to become a man and stand on his own. He's furious with the committee's decision and sets out to fight for his right to save his father's life. Through the film's portrayal of a relationship full of love, rejeuction and co-dependency, it manages to shed some light and question the importance of human life, human connection and if life is even possible without it either one of them.

In 1942, after three years of bringing back dignity to mothers interned in refugee camps and saving the lives of their babies, the Maternity of Elna has been ordered to close it's doors by the French authorities. Its director Elisabeth Eidenbenz, the mothers and their collaborators who have helped to make everything possible, will try to prevent it.

A man recounts his life, from his childhood through his experiences in World War II, and the story of his self-sacrificing mother, who raised him alone.

Rivka, a pregnant female rabbi, has a husband, Simon, who has just been released from a psychiatric ward and has concerns about helping to take care of a child, when he has trouble just taking care of himself.

Life at work becomes unbearable for Orna. Her boss appreciates and promotes her, while making inappropriate advances. Her husband struggles to keep his new restaurant afloat, and Orna becomes the main breadwinner for their three children. When her world is finally shattered, she must pull herself together to fight, in her own way, for her job and a sense of self-worth.

Joseph Pulitzer (1847-1911), a Jewish Hungarian immigrant, arrived in USA 1864. After various jobs, he became journalist, lawyer, politician, publisher and philanthropist.

Danger of losing his business, Anthony Roca, an ordinary man, develops a scam that will become the heist of the century. Overtaken by the crime, he will have to deal with betrayal, murder and settling.

Four interviews done in the 1970s with women who survived the Holocaust.

A film teacher had to teach in Sderot and change the lives of his students.

Aron is 88 years old, Eazek is 94 and Claudine is 89. Over seventy years ago, although they lost their entire families, they survived the holocaust and resettled in New York City. Now they are sharing their stories in a unique program led by a drama therapist with high-school students in Brooklyn. The hope is that this sharing will sensitize the students and give some closure to the adult survivors after all these years. The Witness Theater workshop they participate in culminates in the performance of a play based on Survivor stories. The film that has emerged uses a mix of cinema verite, archival footage, interviews, animation and staged recreations of stories to blend past and present, using the Witness Theatre program as a vehicle for telling the survivors' remarkable stories. Scenes from the program's weekly creative workshops and final performance are interspersed with scenes of the survivors at home, all within the structure of a dramatic arc that traces survivors' lives before, during and after the war. The result is a story that, told in the present, imparts insights into the effect of the past on multiple generations of Jews, while also illustrating the power and importance of transmitting experience from one generation to the next. As the last generation of Holocaust survivors lives out their final years, the number of individuals who are physically and mentally able to "bear witness" dwindles and the question of what happens to their stories and their experience remains.

In this documentary, the hotshot director of The Exorcist (1973) and The French Connection (1971), now 83 years old, is interviewed about his career, and a number of his colleagues and admirers weigh in with reminiscences and tributes.

"From Cairo to the Cloud" tells the gripping story of the discovery and significance of the Cairo Geniza, a vast treasure trove of manuscripts hidden for centuries in the "geniza," or sacred storeroom, of an ancient synagogue in Old Cairo. The Geniza is the largest cache of Jewish history ever found, illuminating over a thousand years of Jewish, Christian and Moslem life in the heart of the Islamic world.

A biographical drama film about Kurt Josef Waldheim, former UN Secretary General and the controversy of his participation and role in the Nazi regime during WW II .

Who Will Write Our History tells the story of Emanuel Ringelblum and the Oyneg Shabes Archive, the secret archive he created and led in the Warsaw Ghetto. With 30,000 pages of writing, photographs, posters, and more, the Oyneg Shabes Archive is the most important cache of in-the-moment, eyewitness accounts from the Holocaust. It documents not only how the Jews of the ghetto died, but how they lived. The film is based on the book of the same name by historian Samuel Kassow.

In 1939, Alfred Lion and Francis Wolff founded the legendary jazz label Blue Note Records in New York. This is the story of two friends, united by a passionate love for jazz, and their belief in equality and freedom for every person.

Soviet officer Alexander Pechersky organizes a revolt and mass escape of prisoners from Sobibór extermination camp in October 1943.

16 year old Jewish Mina, is trying to navigate between a surreal routine dictated by the civil war in Ethiopia and her last days of youth with her Christian boyfriend Eli. When she discovers that her family is planning to immigrate to Israel and escape the war, she weaves an alternate plan in order to save Eli. But in times of war, plans tend to go wrong. Marsha's coming of age film debut film is based on her childhood memories of a civil-war-torn Ethiopia.

The year is 1983 and Yaakov Cohen, the owner of a Jerusalem printing press, is tired from being pushed around. It seems that he was born on the wrong side, with the wrong family name and in a moment's decision he decides to establish a Sephardic-ultra-Orthodox list that will run to the Jerusalem municipality. He gathers two friends, and together they improvise a campaign - no means, no connections, no money, but with much rage, passion and a sense of justice.

A woman filming a documentary on childhood rape victims starts to question the nature of her childhood relationship with her riding instructor and running coach.

Shmuel, a Hasidic cantor in upstate New York, distraught by the untimely death of his wife, struggles to find religious solace, while secretly obsessing over how her body will decay.

Realistic Drama. Omri, a young soldier, was injured in a military operation. His loving family and loyal friends are fighting to bring him back to life. They all go through emotional, funny and human moments which connect them to Omri and to each other.

"City of Joel" is a documentary - with unprecedented access - to a 1.1 square mile shtetl in the suburbs that is home to 22,000 members of one of the most insular and orthodox Hasidic sects. We follow the battles they are waging to survive. Just 50 miles north of New York City, the Satmar sect has built Kiryas Joel as a religious haven where they can be fruitful, multiply and follow the 613 rules of the Talmud. But with some of the highest rates of marriage, birth and religious observance in the country, they have been almost too successful. Developers have come up with a plan to double the size of the village to keep up with this growth, but their neighbors fight back because they believe it will harm the environment and tilt the balance of political power. Kiryas Joel - which means City of Joel - is named for former Joel Teitelbaum, one of the few Rebbes - or religious leaders - to survive the Holocaust. By the 1970s, he worried that his followers were losing their way. So Teitelbaum created an isolated village where every aspect of life revolved around Jewish law. Our film explores how this ultra-orthodox faith has become both a source of strength and tension in Kiryas Joel. In the tradition of rigorous observational documentaries, we present the people on all sides of a conflict - from religious zealots to dissidents, from rabbis to people who doubt their own faith as they struggle to find their own place in the City of Joel.